Harrison Barnes a silver lining in Warriors’ loss to Spurs

With the Warriors still reeling from last night’s 113-100 loss at home to the San Antonio Spurs, fans must look for a silver lining.

In what was a sobering game to the defending champs, Harrison Barnes played his best game of the young season. His final stat line was 22 points (9-12 FG), 8 rebounds, and 1 block in 39 minutes. However something you won’t see in the box score is the confidence he played with.

Barnes and Kawhi Leonard were matched up against each other throughout the night and it’s safe to say that Barnes played him to a draw. Barnes got the Warriors off to a good start hitting his first two shots.

His first bucket was a deep two from the corner. His second field goal came off a backdoor cut in which he lost Leonard and received a dump-off pass from Bogut at the elbow and converted for a big dunk. Barnes continued to contribute when he received a pass off a Klay Thompson drive and kick and Barnes knocked down a corner three. The Black Falcon made 9 of the team’s first 11 points.

“This is the Harrison Barnes we’ve seen fleeting glimpses of and so desperately want to see on a more consistent basis.”

On the defensive side, he played Leonard pretty well. Leonard made some tough shots over Barnes but didn’t get in the lane too consistently with Barnes on him. When Barnes plays as the small ball power forward, he can get beat up defensively by typical power forwards. He was matched up on

for a stretch of time and was outmuscled on the lower block.

Barnes is by no means the defensive player Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, or Draymond Green is, but he is improving and becoming competent on the defensive end. On one play, Barnes came to help on Cory Joseph, who pump faked before going up for a layup. Barnes didn’t fall for Joseph’s pump fake and blocked his shot, which led to a transition layup for Stephen Curry over Matt Bonner.

This is the Harrison Barnes we’ve seen fleeting glimpses of and so desperately want to see on a more consistent basis. The most noticeable thing in Barnes’ game, other than the production, was the conviction he played with. All too often we’ve seen Barnes catch the ball, hesitate to make a move, take two dribbles and pull up for a contested shot. Last night, he was assured of himself whenever he touched the ball. He was assertive and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot, drive, or move the ball, which was great to see.

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The more he can play with the starting unit, the more he’ll continue to assert himself. Last year, he was pressing with the bench players, as he felt he was the top scoring option among Jordan Crawford, Draymond Green, Marreese Speights, and Jermaine O’Neal. While he should have been getting the majority of the offensive touches in that group, Barnes isn’t an excellent shot creator for himself. This year he can put himself in good positions with defenses poised to stop the Splash Brothers. It will be interesting to see if Kerr replaces Barnes or Green with David Lee when he returns from his hamstring injury. Alternatively, Lee might come off the bench, even when fully healthy. If Barnes remains in the starting unit, I predict he will have a bounce back season and average a career high 14 points and 6 rebounds a game.

Odds and ends from last night’s game vs. the Spurs

• Draymond Green guarding Boris Diaw makes you realize that he’s our version of Diaw: a big-bodied, team-first player who does everything well —  good passer, improving shooter, and doesn’t hesitate to do all the dirty work.
• Curry’s streak of 75 consecutive games with a made 3-point FG ended last night. Curry shot 0-7 from downtown.
• Thompson got a technical after his third time (by my count) complaining about a no call on a shot. On the replay it’s clear to see Tim Duncan hit him in the face and arm on his shot.
• The Warriors shot a higher percentage from the field (54.3% vs. 49.5%) but the Spurs took 23 more shots than the Warriors. Spurs had only 8 turnovers and Warriors had 20 turnovers. Spurs had 8 offensive rebounds and Warriors had 1.